SOURCE: Smarr, Janet Levarie. “Decameron.” In Boccaccio and Fiammetta: The Narrator as Lover, pp. 165-74. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986.

In the following excerpt, Smarr argues that in the Decameron Boccaccio further explores his distrust of the power of reason, a theme previously expressed in many of his minor works.

I. Reason

Reason is certainly one of the key words of the Decameron. The author in his preface states that his love-misery was alleviated only by the “piacevoli ragionamenti … e laudevoli consolazioni” [pleasant conversations / reasonings … and praiseworthy consolations] of an unnamed friend. One can think both back to the “consolation” offered by the Philosophy-like guide of the Amorasa Visione and forward to the narrator's conversations in the Corbaccio first with his own reason and then with a friend. It is just such helpful “ragionamenti” that Boccaccio wishes to pass along for the aid of other melancholy lovers through...